Cheetahs are mainly distributed in Africa and West Asia. They once existed widely in these areas, but now their habitat has shrunk to 9%, especially in Asia, which is on the verge of extinction, and only a small amount exists in Iran.
Cheetah distribution map
Speaking of cheetahs, the most impressive thing is its speed. Cheetah is the fastest animal on land. Although it usually hunts at a speed of about 64 kilometers per hour, its instantaneous speed when sprinting can reach 1 12 kilometers per hour, which makes it far ahead of other animals.
With its speed advantage, cheetahs can catch up with all species on the grassland, so it is much easier to prey on ungulates than any large predator such as lions and hyenas. At the same time, it won the first place among big cats with a success rate of 58% and became a veritable big cat? The king of hunting? .
cheetah
Are cheetahs big cats?
Some people say that judging modern cats is? Big cat? , or? Kitten? The method mainly depends on whether they will roar like liger, and some people say that only members of Leopard subfamily can be considered as big cats, strictly speaking, cheetahs can't be considered as big cats.
Is that really the case? Really? Big cat? It's just a conventional name, and the rules of division are only judged according to size. The cheetah's hyoid bone has been completely ossified, so it can't roar. It also belongs to the subfamily Felinae, but it is also a member of the big cats like the puma. After all, some bigger cheetahs can weigh more than 70 kilograms.
puma
In fact, it is not accurate to classify big cats by sound or cat system classification. Snow leopard, for example, belongs to the genus Panthera and is recognized as a big cat, but its hyoid ossification is lower than that of cheetah, but higher than that of liger, so it can neither roar like liger nor make a sound like a kitten? Mumbling? It can only make a sound between the two, similar to panting. In addition, although clouded leopard is a member of Leopard subfamily, it is small and not among the big cats.
clouded leopard
Cheetah was originally divided into a subfamily called Cheetah subfamily. After the revision, the cheetah subfamily was cancelled, and the cheetah was also classified into the cat subfamily, becoming a species under the puma pedigree.
Although cheetahs and cougars are very different in appearance, one is full of spots and has a high value, and the other is a solid color, but do you know? Cheetah and cougar? Separation? Their time is very short, only a few million years. They had the same ancestor in Miocene. It was not until more than 6.7 million years ago that the cheetah separated from the puma and evolved in different directions, and finally became what we see now.
cheetah
The king of hunting? How was it made?
In 20 12, a research institution made statistics on the predation behavior of cheetahs in Serengeti grassland, and recorded 192 times of cheetah hunting behavior, of which 1 14 times were successful, indicating that its predation success rate was 58%. Maybe many people have no idea about this value, after all, there is no reference object comparison.
In cats, 58% is actually a very high number. You should know that the success rate of the leopard in Kalahari is only 14%, and the leopard in the northeast of Namibia will be slightly higher, but it is only 38%.
The success rate of a single lion is only 17%- 19%, even if three lions hunt together, it is only 25%; As a famous? Lonely hunter? The success rate of tiger predation is not high. A study on the Siberian tiger in the Russian Far East found that the tiger's success rate in catching deer was 38%.
Black-footed cat, the champion predator of cats, is only two percentage points more than cheetah, accounting for 60%. This shows how high the success rate of cheetah predation is among cats, which is enough to win the crown of big cats.
Cheetah preys
Cheetah can have such a high success rate of predation, mainly relying on speed to win, 20 12, some scholars measured a name? Sarah. 1 1 year-old female cheetah ran 100 meters in 5.59 seconds, setting a world record, so this cheetah is also called the fastest cheetah on earth.
Speed is very important for cheetah hunting activities. On the African prairie, there are all kinds of powerful carnivores. They are either strong by themselves or live in groups to gather the strength of many individuals. Even most herbivores live in large groups, and cheetahs want to live in their own homes. Cracks? In order to survive, you must. Two brushes? And speed is its greatest trump card.
Running cheetah
Relying on the speed advantage, cheetahs can kill most small and medium-sized ungulates, or they can rush into the herd and pick up wildebeest cubs to escape without being hurt by adult wildebeests. Sometimes we can't help thinking, why do cheetahs run so fast? This is actually related to their unique structure.
We can observe the whole external shape of cheetahs, and we will find that they are tall and light, with slender but strong muscles and a long and flexible spine, which is obviously a sprint posture. In addition, the nasal cavity of cheetahs is larger than that of ordinary predators, which can ensure that they inhale enough oxygen when running at high speed.
Of course, speed alone is not enough. If you want to be one of the big cats? The king of hunting? Cheetahs must also have other skills, that is, how to keep balance when running at high speed, have high flexibility and always see their prey clearly.
Anyone who has sprint experience may find this phenomenon. The faster we run, the worse our steering ability will be, and our vision will become blurred and we can't see an object clearly, but cheetahs don't have this problem, mainly because of its unique inner ear structure.
There is a research paper in Science Report magazine, which reveals the unique structure in the inner ear of cheetah. It can keep the brain balanced when running at high speed, and its eyes can always stare at its prey.
Scientists analyzed 2 1 cat's skull and found that the vestibular system of cheetah accounts for 38%-43.7% higher than that of any other cat, while the vestibular system of most cats accounts for 32.4% of the inner ear. This difference enables cheetahs to maintain more brain balance and better visual stability than other cats during exercise, thus ensuring cheetahs to run at high speed.
Hidden dangers under high-speed movement
The world is fair, since it gives you such excellent speed, you must take something from other aspects. Actually, it's true. Although cheetah has a speed unmatched by other animals, this speed also makes it one of the big cats? The king of hunting? But at the same time, it also laid a huge hidden danger, which directly affected its daily life.
It turns out that cheetahs are fast, but they can't run at high speed for a long time. Its endurance is extremely poor. If you try strenuous exercise, the cheetah's respiratory system and internal circulation system will be overloaded, and the accumulated heat in the body cannot be quickly discharged in a short time. What are the direct consequences? Exhausted , even life-threatening.
A cheetah is eating.
In many documentaries, we often see the phenomenon that after a hunt, if the prey escapes, it will not catch up again, mainly because it needs to rest for a long time to recover its strength after a hunt.
Similarly, cheetahs don't eat immediately after completing a hunt. This is not to say that it is not hungry, but after running at high speed, it has almost no strength to eat, and it must take a break before it can start eating.
So in reality, some predators, such as spotted hyenas and brown hyenas, often catch cheetahs at this time. In normal times, cheetahs have the ability to protect their food, but if they have just finished hunting, they can only watch hyenas take away hard-won prey.
Brown hyenas took the cheetah's food.
10% is the probability that the cheetah's food will be taken away, which means that every time a cheetah catches 10 prey, one prey will be taken away, which is really miserable. However, the biggest problem is not this, but life safety. If a cheetah happens to meet a powerful predator like a lion after a prey, it is likely that it will not escape. In addition, because the cheetah's high-speed running costs a lot, if it fails to hunt for three times in a row, the probability of death will be even greater.